Chain-stopper



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WM. H. GRAY, DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF, AND ALBERT G.

BROWNE, OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAIN-STOPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 21,296, dated August 24, 1858.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, IVILLIAM H. GRAY, of Dover, in the county of Stratford and State of New Hampshire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Chain- Stoppers to be used in Connection with Anchor-Cables on Shipboard, and that the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein I have set forth the nature and principles of my said improvements, by which my invention may be distinguished from all others of a similar class, together with such parts as I claim and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent.

The figures of the accompanying plate of drawings represent my improvements.

Figure l is a plan or top view of my improved chain-stopper. Fig. 2 is a central vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken in the plane of the line A B, Fig. 2. i

The strain which comes upon the pawl of a chain-stopper when the anchor is being weighed is so great, that it is very essential that the utmost possible strength should be provided in the bearings which sustain the pawl. This cannot be the case when standards are used, as is usually the case, with circular holes for supporting the shaft on which the pawl turns, and my improvement avoids the necessity of weakening thestandards by thus making these holes, and leaves them solid to sustain the whole strain which is thrown back upon them through the pawl. These Stoppers are laced directly behind the hawse holes in t e night heads or near the Windlass.

My improved stopper is represented as mounted or cast upon a tube of proper diameter shown at a a Figs. l and 2 having a guiding groove b b for the chain which holds the anchor. The supporting standards or ears c 0 are made nearly circular and as before suggested are cast solid upon or with the top of the tube a a and on each of their innerfaces are provided with elongated curved bossings or projections Z CZ shown by dotted lines in Figs. l and 2 on which the butt or rear of the pawl e e is supported, by being rabbeted or cut out on either side so Vas to form a curved rim f f which rests on said bossings as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Said rim has an opening g g to allow it to be shipped or unshipped from the bossings whenever required.

The pawl e e should be made Very strong at its butt and is formed near the same with two shoulders L 71 which, when the pawl is in its diagonal position are brought to bear against the front and underside of the standards or ears o c, so as to take the whole strain to the said ears, which are not Aweakened as before ystated by having holes bored in them to support the shaft of the pawl.

Having thus described my improvements, I shall state my claim as follows:

l/Vhat I claim as my invention and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent, is-

The improvement in chain stoppers herein above described which consists in hanging the butt of the pawl on bossings cast on theinside of the two supporting standards or ears, in combination with the shoulders 71, it on said pawl bearing against said standards as described, the whole being arranged and operating as herein above specified.

W. H. GRAY. Witnesses:

VRHn1MU1\"r SAYER, ALBERT W. BROWN. 

